Oviedo’s Urban Planning (or Lack Thereof)

Oviedo’s Urban Planning (or Lack Thereof)

No other Spanish city has as many streets designated as Pedestrian-Only as Oviedo, and it’s a joy to walk around the city center without having to stick to the sidewalks.

On the other hand… there is still a lot of room for improvement. Traffic lights in Oviedo take ages to turn green. Intersections make no sense. Way too many cars ignore the pedestrian zones. And biking in this city is a nightmare — drivers (especially taxis) seem to detest bikers and I’ve seen some disturbingly aggressive behavior.

Here’s one particularly striking example of poor urban planning which has vexed me since discovering it. Right at the end of the Paseo de la Losa. Let’s say you want to get to the building on the other side of the street…

You can’t just cross the street! Don’t be silly! You have to cross 4 streets, each with traffic lights that take eons to finally turn. This is simply aggravating.

Or consider the intersection between Calles Caveda and Foncalada. Just a normal intersection, right? But check out where the stop bar is on Calle Foncalada!

If you’re on Caveda, and want to go straight… half the time you’re shit out of luck, because the traffic stopped on Foncalada is blocking you, and you can pretty much forget about turning left. It doesn’t take a genius to predict that this is gong to cause mayhem — and guess what? It does. Frequently. As a one-time only special, I’ve waived my normal consulting fee and made a free suggestion as to where the stop bar should go (in yellow).

There are a lot of other examples of questionable planning throughout Oviedo. Of course, a city which is over a thousand years old is going to have weird streets and crazy intersections, but man! A part of me can’t wait to get back to the US, where most of our cities have boring, grid-like patterns.

Oviedo's Urban Planning (or Lack Thereof)No other Spanish city has as many streets designated as Pedestrian-Only as Oviedo, and it's a joy to walk around the city center without having to stick to the sidewalks.

Michael Powell

For 91 Days

2 Comments

Pappy Powell

Be careful what you wish for….the city of Savannah was designed by the Spanish. Example…one street, one way, both ways. Have fun but always look both ways twice !

Follow Us

About Us

We're Jürgen and Mike, from Germany and the USA. Born wanderers, we love learning about new cultures and have decided to see the world... slowly. Always being tourists might get lame, but eternal newcomers? We can live with that. So, our plan is to move to an interesting new city, once every three months. About 91 days. Read More

Subscribe

Enter your email address to be subscribed to a newsletter of our latest posts.

Puzzle App

Check out our 15 Sliding Puzzle game! With hundreds of puzzles featuring our photography from around the world, you'll never run out of new destinations to discover! The app is totally free and contains no ads.